well in the tax haven cyprus securing a last addition belo with the e.u. but it will inflict a big haircut for high level depositors and close one of the country's largest banks. british police rule out a third party involved in the death of russian oligarch and from one critic boris starr's offspeed. resignation rejected the syrian national coalition pushes its leader to stay in his post to be wider fears trouble will derail at the top will direct chances of talks with the government. you. know. i had no idea that. i did not. strike in guantanamo off the radar in the us media prisoners have been refusing food for forty eight days now risking their health in a desperate protest. ten

am in moscow. good to have you with us here on r t we begin in cyprus where fraud talks went down to the white wire but the country managed to clinch an eleventh hour belo deal with creditors to avoid financial ruin is a price to pay the people with more than one hundred thousand euros in the country's second largest bank will see a chunk of that taken away the bank itself will be broken up artie's test has more from. or has. really been a last minute effort here trying to meet monday twenty fifth of matched by the european central bank and cutting up liquidity there will be a restructuring of the country's second largest bank your capital bank of cyprus

like you know what's going to happen is going to be having to create the concept of the good bad bad bad so first of all those are the plans that so the one hundred thousand euros will be protected and a move to transfer to the bank of cyprus that is the largest lender of the country well. above one hundred thousand euros will be taking a last. levy the. holders of class are super the banks were bad has now left the sun some day but the essential bank imposed a limit blows that people can take from a.t.m. there was a one hundred you were a limit so we can see the cash back problem still is being felt here on the ground the people are still really really frustrated and really anxious of what's going to be happening over the senior staff and family members of loci by the run that is now is effectively going to be closed they've already been protesting into the streets and. drabs. many people here

feel this kind of saving the banks is not actually sending the people of cyprus memo to the president of the country this is a deal that would be pleasing to the people of cyprus but really be a reality but you see on the ground also there's also a lot of frustration on the fact that. the capital going for the movement of the assets of the access to the money so we know that the people here are just rude about the fact but they don't have cash in hand it's very difficult to access whether their savings are still going to be substantial and so we can expect that people here room last to be welcome melissa rivers open arms. the cyprus rescue package approval has eased fears of a banking collapse there and raised hopes that attention can move toward some kind of recovery for the small island economy but let's see what wider effect the deal may have for the rest of europe we're looking at the worst case scenario here nervous investors investors could pull their money out of europe's other debt

stricken countries the e.u. are you that the e.u. could trap could tap into their bank deposits as well savers could well cause a run on banks in cyprus feeling their money is safe or in their own hands from now on that would deal a blow to the cash the banks need to hold on to one could trigger another widescale quick credit freeze none of this will help the use public reputation at the moment sixty seven per cent of cypriots want to leave the block financial advisor warren paula tells us that the hardships of the small cyprus economy are part of a much bigger picture of the crisis we're talking now about cyprus which has one point one five million people but in reality this is a global problem which has not been addressed since two thousand and seven two thousand and eight and previous to that with the issuance of huge amounts of debt and look into the system both year and in the united states and when that dead goes bad the only recourse which exists is to tap the remaining collateral in the system

which is the saving sooner or later if you keep on sort of stealing savings you're going to have popular unrest it's something which is of relevance in a country that is one point one five million people but when you start to see unrest let's say in france where they are not as strong financially as well as germany i mean we can stephanie see the small countries being the test to see whether savings can be stolen on a wider scale. rescue package coming at a high cost for cyprus which struggled to keep its tax haven status. even threatened to resign at one point during the stormy talks with. more details on analysis. it was through someone was always going to lose out the. monetary affairs commissioner saying there were. more opinion from all sides of the.

british police saying there is no evidence to suggest any third party involvement in the death of boris berezovsky the body of the russian tycoon and vocal kremlin critic was found in his bathroom saturday his death still being treated as unexplained. reports from outside the state. police continuing to investigate the unexplained death of boris berezovsky now in a statement they said the post-mortem movie carried out there had been a two mile police cordon. after the c.v.r.

and the investigators trained in handling radioactive material had given the scene the all clear the police have described taking a statement from the employee he found mr birdsall ski's body after forcing a pin in the bathroom door having become concerned for his welfare now that employee was the only other person in the house at the time the body was discovered another senior investigating officer hit his side they are keeping an open mind in the early stages of the investigation and that it would be wrong to speculate at this stage but of course there has been a huge amount all speculation. made his fortune after the breakup of the soviet union a hugely controversial character now we've heard in an interview that with a party given by mr brzezinski his latest friday the day before he died in a conversation with

a journalist he talks of his longing to return home to russia and we've also heard from the russian president's press attash a he said that two months ago the president received a letter from verizon we can take a listen now to what that said. some time ago maybe some two months ago but it's a letter to prove himself. that he made a lot of mistakes. to forgive him mistakes. did exist certainly the picture i think being built up of mr berg or ski in his final years quite aside quite a lonely picture he was a larger than life characters that seem somewhat which east in. in years now we've had a number of high profile court cases here in the a the most recent of which is with fellow oligarch roman abramovich and people have described not just the

psychological impact of losing that court case which quite humiliation for mr various of ski but also the financial impact is well as he said the picture coming out of him and he certainly had seem to express in his final days a longing to return home and of course that hasn't happened and he is now the subject of the own going investigation here into his death boris berezovsky was at the top of russia's political life in the ninety's awash with money and influence earlier are to discuss the tycoons legacy with cross talk host peter lavelle. boris berezovsky here a man who absolutely made a fortune as they say during the ninety's or told. in russia you stole it let's be clear here is that all it he didn't make this not even a woman it i mean it pilate a manipulator ok he used the system what was happening in russia the political system had collapsed the economy had collapsed belief in authority had collapsed everything it was in collapse so he picked up pieces all the all over the place

where he was he didn't generate wealth he store wealth let's be clear about what they can you can you talk about in the end because you know talking off air about the the rule of seven of bankers that came out of this is where the term came in i think was better software that invented it essentially that in one thousand nine hundred six a small number of people had a community enormous wealth but they wanted more and they said to yeltsin we'll get you reelected which have to give shares in state institutions and bear off lot of eccentric cetera and he did it he gave the economy away so he ruled over very little had no power and because off he was at the top of the hill so this is how he generated his wealth ok he didn't earn it but now you talk about a wealthy man you've met him and there's yes and ohm arrogant he was full of themself ok but a lot of security around him an enormous amount of security he was paranoid for good reason there were attempts on his life and he left because he was worried for

his life ok he took his money with him or at least a good part of it is sold a self-imposed exile in learned it was a solicitor sleep it was an escape he left it was he would have been charged with all kinds of criminal offenses all the reservation self-preservation not going to get out of and then revenge ok what about what about one of the you know one of the high profile cases was probably wasn't really that it been going to the polonium poisoning worked for a bit of skin so litvinenko world would be better off in what capacity to look for dirt to look for dirt on politicians out of college and yes of course that was his job let's let's bring it up at his office he meeting at. i'm a bitch in court are we talking about billions you know massive massive legal deceit it was a really huge gamble on the part of betters offline was it a gamble to have one shred of evidence that would one sheet of paper to prove he came to court with nothing but work up slightly why gamble so he was a newbie and just coming you know the end was coming he was running out of money you think he was running out of money is broke because

a lot of people question how much he was really worth was he worth these three point one billion i doubt it ever you doubt it so do you think it was a court battles or without my mortgage or maybe others that basically by step by step broken down he died alone interesting alone no friends is his wife and had learned all respect he lost his money he lost the respect he wasn't able to come home because we had heard recently that he had been trying to come back to moscow even pending illusional delusional you think he wanted to come back or not i think he wanted to come back and as for given his know it was never going to happen whereas as he became a fierce kremlin critic since he moved to the u.k. columnist married a jet ski from the independent newspaper some foreign officials in britain could see this as a chance to help improve russian u.k. ties. i don't think he particularly was a serious threat to the kremlin. i think that. fancied himself as a threat and maybe he wanted to be more of a threat than actually he was. but the position that he held through the second

half of the ninety's in russia obviously made him like the figure of that period the figure of berezovsky his position when he died this weekend and the contrast between that and his position of power and huge influence in the late ninety's illustrates in some ways how russia has changed and how much russia has changed in those five ten years i think elsewhere behind the scenes in places like foreign office in the corridors of government they'll be you know i won't say they'll be doing something that's improper or sort of dancing in the aisles but berezovsky was a very awkward figure he was a big obstacle to diplomacy with russia and i think his death will be seen as i hope anyway as maybe removing an obstacle to better relations with russia. r t following the ongoing hunger strike at the guantanamo bay detention center later we

report on a protest entering its forty eighth day lawyers say more than one hundred inmates refusing food or risking their health and not much being said about it in u.s. mainstream media details still ahead. what you have no way to live. when you don't have a family. no one to ask for help you can always count on. this man is respected by criminals and also as he is a like. scum but tonight it was people like he used to be. for the homeless. i mean so the only city in europe i'm the host of the twenty forty in the winter the picture. thank you.

so much. thank you. dr. is it. common. to. see it's so true. science technology innovation all the list of elements from around russia we. covered. you think you understand it. and realize everything. is a big. news

today. these are the images. from the streets of canada. today. thanks for staying with us sixteen minutes past the hour now the syrian national coalition has refused to accept its leaders resignation. he was quitting just months after he was elected because he was desired to leave seen as a blow to the diminishing moderate wing of the uprising against the assad regime

and the sudden avoid could be filled by more radical opposition. in his statement was said that he was stepping down because some matters have to quote him reached red lines now he hasn't explained exactly what prompted his resignation but he did say that he was designing to be able to work with freedom that cannot be available from official institutions keep in mind that her tip was someone that both russia and the united states look to as a person that they could negotiate with on the future of syria back in february had to admit with the russian foreign minister sergei lavrov following his claim that the syrian opposition was ready to negotiate with syrian president bashar assad it is important to remember that this was the first time ever that the syrian opposition talked about the possibility of talking to a side although later backtracked by saying that he was willing to talk about the departure of assad with his vice president and his government but not with the

syrian president assad himself now how to resignation does raise questions over the integrity of the syrian national opposition coalition it comes on the heels of twelve opposition members pulling out last week over the election of a prime minister at the tip has complained that there has been insufficient groundwork to actually be able to form a government what we witnessing also is stark division amongst eighteen not united picture at all and the opposition finding it very difficult to come to some kind of united stance on how to deal with the syrian regime with the tips stepping down is also seen as a sign of internal divisions it is seen as a sign of anxiety and so the question remains what does his resignation mean for effort to find a diplomatic solution to this conflict. bring him a journalist and political commentator in damascus as the diverse demands from western sponsors this further dividing the syrian coalition. he was the person who

first proposed the notion of a dialogue with the syrian government and he was attacked by at least let's say it was ill received by most of the other opposition factions the coalition of opposition the revolutionary forces which most of us thought he was heading was oversleep facing some serious trouble regarding its internal unity gathers many people who have different points of view it has the liberals or tells the people from the left side it has the islamic fundamentalists and there is a muslim brotherhood so it gathered many voices and those voices only came together because the united states for america thought that the opposition should be united now but in fact they can't be united because they have all these different ideologies and all different ways of approaching the syrian crisis the opposition has many sponsors and every sponsor is claiming his territory some of the opposition figures act accordingly to what their foreign sponsors who own them to do they're saying we are the opposition we represent the syrian people and anyone

who says otherwise i was another of course with the issue should not be labeled as opposition and this is a serious problem and i think it's one of the key factors behind the departure of the think about the syrian situation is that everyone is doing whatever they want and the opposition body abroad they can't control the rebel forces inside and even the fact that the free army has said it doesn't acknowledge mr he does government it's a great indication so i think there's a big gap between the people fighting inside and opposition forces operating from the outside. among prisoners at guantanamo bay detention center into its fourth day but their plight still struggling to get wider attention lawyers say more than one hundred inmates are refusing food and concern about their deteriorating health prison officials continue to downplay the protest and there's little coverage in the us mass media. reports. this issue in the world of twenty four hour news no country knows the power of media better than the us

hard to believe it's been ten years since the shock and awe campaign that launched the iraq war we could have removed saddam hussein in another way that would not have been so damaging to america i mean a man had to go ten years later the killing continues in iraq without also continuing without adding that mass hunger strike at the guantanamo bay detention center but that topic remains off the radar of mainstream news and hid it from the american public no i do not know to you know i had no idea you know really according to the center for constitutional rights one hundred thirty guantanamo prisoners began a life threatening hunger strike nearly seven weeks ago to protest treatment and conditions at the island prison a prison america's president promised would be closed at the start of twenty ten do you think that that's a topic that should be reported by u.s. media yeah i think so. because they are being kept in prison by the u.s.

so it's only fair that they get their views expressed that's what the whole country's built on the freedom of information to do that i mean i just think it's the right thing to do time square is otherwise known as the mecca of media messages millions walk through here on a daily basis flooded with information through news seekers plasma screens and advertisements but as we've learned even the most important stories can be ignored that nobody else is talking about this subject if this were happening in russia if people had disappeared into. a legal black hole in russia. facing indefinite incarceration without trial without charge and without access of attorneys would never hear the end of it the western media would be full of it human rights watch honest international they'd be screaming from the rooftops of westman stuff behind me but because this is an american crime because it's an

american crime they're allowed to get away with it because the people who control the so-called mainstream media are fully on side with the agenda of the obama administration top u.s. general down calling for hundreds of millions of dollars to upgrade the u.s. detention facility when c.n.n. finally turned its focus to get them out with the so-called worldwide leader in news ignored the hunger strike is there anything wrong with trying to improve it fix it spend a few hundred million dollars to get it ready for maybe a new generation of terrorists instead focusing on the money being requested to update the facility where one hundred sixty six detainees are still languishing you know that more than half of the. kuantan now have been cleared for release i used the area. you know i didn't i had. a lot i did not see as more than one hundred prisoners reportedly continued their hunger

strike the u.s. military continues to dispute the figures however when our team first broke the story on march twelfth u.s. officials were denying that a strike was even taking place as you recall they started off by saying no one's on a hunger strike just the five or six people who have been on a hunger strike for many years you know then that figure was revised up to fourteen and now we're seeing the figure steadily increasing but to nowhere near the the extent that the that the prison lawyers are talking about and i think you know hearing about how the lawyers are not being allowed to visit plus this big gulf between what the lawyers are saying and what the administration is saying is indicative of the administration still trying to clamp down on me and they don't want this story out and i think that that means that there is a very big story going on but in the business of broadcast news u.s. networks have to prioritize which big stories deserve the most attention that's right the canadians are using farting to combat smoking nancy grace first of all i

want to express my condolences what happened to your necklace former president bill clinton gets his way actress ashley judd will never be a united states senator. of new york when hollywood liberals. take a look now at some other international news this hour demonstrators against france's same sex marriage bill had to be dispersed with tear gas after they tried to break through a cordon and say it's estimated that some three hundred thousand people turned out against the bill which has already been approved by parliament support for same sex marriage is waning and friends although most of the anger was at leaders for prioritizing it for jobs and the economy. british prime minister announced a massive immigration crackdown that would restrict welfare payments so. well housing and health care david cameron laid into what he called the something for nothing culture of those arriving in the u.k. and once the numbers of people allowed in to be heavily reduced largely this is

aimed at the e.u. member states like paul garia and romania that are about to join the agreement that allows free movement and work throughout the block. in libya about two hundred former rebel fighters have been seized the office of prime minister ali is that dan demanding his resignation they claim the country's political isolation of law forbids members of the former regime from political life and saddam was a diplomat during moammar gadhafi zero before the nation's eight month long civil war in two thousand and eleven. pakistan's former president pervez musharraf has returned to his country after five years in self-imposed exile he was united states main political ally in the war on terror until stepping down in two thousand and seven i mean increasing calls for his impeachment musharraf has set his sights on a political comeback for the may elections with a pledge to save the country if u.s. is ready to withdraw from the troubled neighboring pakistan taliban terror threats are mounting in the region political analyst sultan hali things which are if is

backed by foreign patrons with their own state and the country. the west has. to its advantage it looks. depressed france is always a military dictator but the situation now in pakistan is that a military dictatorship is possibly out of the question so the next best thing is to prop somebody who was there a trusted man and you can find some evidence on it because saudi arabia has in fact approached mr sharif who was his biggest opponent into keeping silent if you notice mr should have just returned from a trip and he has not even being called on it is saying that we cannot deny it posting from his it up residing in trees on the home so probably there is a method in that madness and the vested interest is that they would like to see their own man in place so that did teddy's their practices and did interest in government as well as ensured by and that may be raised by shot off. stay with us

here on r t cross star coming up next. almost since the new pope was chosen the calls for reform are analysts everyone wants the new pope to allow this and to allow that but the problem is that the catholic church is a religion not a product and people don't like the way a pepsi bottle looks while the company will have to in theory change it to meet public demand but the pope claims to represent the will of the creator of the universe the pope supposedly holds and protects an ancient an eternal truth so how can you expect this eternal truth just up and change because of public demand even though they pretend like adult religions do change over time but how can you expect

the pope after hundreds of years of saying that people would be condemned to the fires of hell and eternity in the charred walls of the damned for certain sins just now say well i guess those sins are ok if you are catholic and you want your religion to change constantly then why do you believe in it why bother having principles and rules in the first place supposedly given to you by the almighty if you're just going to change them whenever you feel like it i don't get this but that's just my opinion.